Until very recently, I have been using 8800GT SLI in my rig. Unfortunately, one of them has unexpectedly given up the ghost on me, and I'm stuck with only one.

Money is a bit tight right now, but as long as I'm getting a new card, it might as well be a bit of an upgrade from where I was. I'd love to go for a 560 ti, but I don't think it's in the cards. Instead, I'm targeting a GTX 460 1GB model.

I do, however, have a couple of questions. I'd like to set things up so I can use my 42" LG TV as a secondary monitor, so I can game on it as well. I understand the 460 can do sound over HDMI natively, without the little SPDIF lead, but how does this affect the use of speakers through onboard audio? Do they tend to play nice together?

Secondly, I was considering using my 8800GT as a dedicated PhysX/folding card. Is there any real advantage in doing so at this point, or can the 460 pretty much handle all its own grunt work?

In the same vein, any thoughts as to how my 500W PSU would handle both the 460 and an 8800GT simultaneously? (The rest of my rig is in my system specs to the top right).

Thanks for the anticipated advice, as always! Go Beavers_Gone_Bananas!

using a 8800 for dedicated physX is by all means a good setup, however 500W would normally not be enough for most modern cards + an 8800 (edit: you could still give it a try tho as both the GT and this 5850 are not too power hungry)...now normally i'd say a gtx 460 (not the SE or 768mb editions tho) is a good card for a 100-150$ pricerange if you can find it...but right now sapphire just released a few weeks ago a redesigned 5850 which are selling for 130$. I picked one of these up for my friends new build (he is considering getting a second one) and these things overclock like mad too 1010/1280 (core/mem without too much pushing and testing so probably could get higher on the mem). That is a 33% OC putting its performance past 5870s somewhere between 470-480 territory with temps never leaving the high 60s.

The only problem would be the lack of PhysX if you rly play games that use it alot, but then Id suggest upgrading your psu and using ur old card for that... the Mushkin Volta 650W (not the older 600W versions tho) are good PSUs for rly cheap.

I stepped into the red zone last night and put in an order for the Sapphire Xtreme 5850... I feel a little weird about leaving team green, but I couldn't get a 460 1GB for that price, and the performance numbers are all so damned good....

Thanks again for pointing me toward it; I never would have known that a 5850 was available anywhere near my price range.

Appreciated, but too late now. TBH, though, I've actually had a fair number of problems with the Nvidia drivers. That will be one aspect I'm glad to be done with--I only hope the Catalyst drivers don't give me as many problems...

Appreciated, but too late now. TBH, though, I've actually had a fair number of problems with the Nvidia drivers. That will be one aspect I'm glad to be done with--I only hope the Catalyst drivers don't give me as many problems...

Too funny. Most people will say ATI drivers suck ass compared to those of Nvidia.